Happy customers are great. But they’re like generic, vanilla ice cream – nice as a compliment to a variety of tasty treats but lacking in the real impetus necessary to stand alone as an ambassador for ice cream everywhere. For organisations, brand evangelists on the other hand are akin to a decadent, creamy gelato. In comparison, their superiority is obvious.  A key challenge, though, faced by many companies is how to turn the former into the latter. While this evolution is impossible if we are still talking about ice cream (as many Italian purists will attest) happy customers can become brand evangelists. They are already half-way there – they like your brand. That’s not enough though; a brand evangelist is loyal – they’re much more likely to use your goods or services again and a study conducted by Fred Reicheld of Bain & Company, Inc. found that “a 5% increase in customer retention produces more than a 25% increase in profit”.

Image Credit: Freedigitalphotos.net

1.    Remember that it’s one small step

Consider the best piece of pizza that you have ever had in your life… (clearly my theme today is food.) I would wager that you told a significant number of people about that pizza and that based on your recommendation, at least a few tried it. Now consider all of the pizza that you have eaten in your life that was tasty and satisfying, but also, nothing to write home about. That’s the difference between a happy customer and a brand evangelist. Of course, subconsciously, the pizza probably wasn’t the only factor that played a role in your evangelism; several other variables probably contributed – the lighting, music and service at the restaurant, for example. This is a little more complicated when we are no longer discussing pizza but the principle remains the same. It’s often the little things that will ensure that a happy customer becomes a brand evangelist.

2.    All you need is love

While they may not have been thinking about your clients, Lennon and McCartney were spot on with this one. Client love is critical to this process. From their first impression of your brand, to the end of your transaction, you have several opportunities to help your clients fall in love with your brand. Start with the brand touch points. These are where your happy customers are most likely to interact with your brand. Social Media platforms, email and the telephone all play a critical role. Response time is of the essence here (it should be as close to immediate as possible) as is ensuring that your clients interact with empathetic representatives of your company who will really listen to what they have to say and react appropriately and sincerely. It’s also important to ensure that you have a good CRM process in place so that you can maintain good relationships beyond the initial contract.

3.    Don’t overlook your own employees

Your employees may not strictly fall into the category of happy customers. But that doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t be trained and treated with the same care. For one thing, you can have all of the external brand ambassadors in the world, but if your own employees won’t vouch for you, you have bigger problems than you realise. Turning your employees into brand evangelists is a two-fold process. Most importantly, they need to love your company; they need to feel valued and their interests and vision need to be aligned with that of your organisation. The second part of this is that even if we exclude what they are saying about you outside of work hours, your employees are also the people on the ground – those with whom your customers interact most often. Incentivise them to build lasting, meaningful relationships with your key clients. This will enhance their experience, increase client love and make it much easier to get testimonials and recommendations. Regardless of whether these refer to a specific person or are generic, they will still reflect well on your company as a whole.

4.    Focus your efforts and keep things personal

Often, a choice will need to be made about which relationships to cultivate and which to let be. In a perfect world, every satisfied customer would become a brand evangelist on some level. However, that is fairly unlikely. Focusing your efforts on a few key, influential clients, and investing in those relationships will yield a better return than non-specifically trying to catch everyone in the same net. It will allow you to keep things personal, learn your customers’ names and remember that Jill Henderson’s second cousin’s husband’s brother, Frank is struggling with his gout. The key things to keep in mind here are that interaction is key to maintaining this relationship and that availability can’t be overrated.  Your brand evangelists need to hear from you and about you and they need to have a clear and open line of communication through which to contact you if necessary.

5.    Reward evangelists and repeat customers

While overtly paying your customers for their good opinion of you may compromise your authenticity, there’s nothing to stop you from rewarding them after the fact. This reward could be in the form of discounts or vouchers. It could be a gift. By the same token, providing an incentive for repeat customers to choose your brand again, using the same mechanisms, will service all of your goals, making them feel loved and providing tangible value. In all likelihood, this will result in a few more happy customers evolving into brand evangelists.

Of course, this conversation is borne out of one about ORM – a tactic that is integral to this process. So often relegated to finding negativity about brands, it can also be used to follow the customers with whom you are getting it right. If you don’t know who your happy customers are (and of course, who is talking about your brand, online), then you are going to find it challenging to cultivate the positive relationships that breed brand ambassadors.

To learn more about managing your reputation online, register for our course starting on the 4th July.

Also check out:

• 2 Minutes with Fred Road, Heavy Chef founder and ORM evangelist
• ORM: Unusual Business Benefits
• A Beginners Guide to ORM